


Fallout

by Echopoet2962



Category: Tin Man (2007)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-11-30 14:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 2,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11465373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Echopoet2962/pseuds/Echopoet2962
Summary: A series of drabbles that take place after the defeat of the witch.





	1. What DG didn't expect

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer - I do not own the Tin Man series nor any of its characters and I am not making any money from this story. 
> 
> Note - Most of these drabbles will not be connected to each other. There will be a note at the top to let you know if they are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - I do not own the Tin Man series nor any of its characters, and I am not making money from this story.
> 
> Note - Some of these drabbles will be connected and there will be a note at the top letting you know. This one is the first of the "Unexpected" series.

Although DG had a long history of not thinking about the consequences of her actions, there were a few things she had expected to happen after defeating the witch. She knew she would be a princess, but not quite just how much **work** that would entail. She expected Az to need some time to learn how to be herself again without the witch's presence, but not to be the depressed creature that virtually locked herself in her room and refused to see anyone but for a very few select people (the last she knew Glitch had even volunteered to come up with a secret password for her to ask any would be visitors). DG had known that it would be hard for people to accept Az, contrary to popular belief DG was naïve, but not **that** much. However, she did not expect one of those people to be their mother.

Lavender didn't say anything unkind to Az or avoid looking her in the eye as some others did. There was no outward sign of hesitation when she touched her, but to those who were close there was a coolness, a distance that should never be between mother and daughter. DG hadn't discussed it with anyone yet, but she knew the others saw it. It was there in the sadness lurking in Ahamo's eyes whenever he looked at his wife or eldest daughter.

Even more than Lavender's distance, the thing DG had least expected were the two men who supported Az the most, after herself and Ahamo, the Cain men. They were the first to volunteer to protect her and one of them was often found by her side. DG had questioned Glitch about it once. He'd followed her gaze to where Az and Jeb were walking in the distance and had replied, "Why not? Out of all of us they should understand what it's like to be trapped in your own mind." Then with a flashing smile and a wave of his hands he'd turned his attention back to her, "What do you think about using amaranthine, it could be a tribute to the Queen's eyes, or maybe something more irrelative, like limicolous? Perhaps we could even do a rotation. I wonder where Raw is…" and before she could even nod her head he was turned around and off in the other direction talking to himself, presumably in search of Raw, while she'd continued to stare after Az and her escort.

Now as DG held her sister after her latest nightmare and watched Cain stare out the dark windows, she rather thought that made sense after all.


	2. Charm isn't everything

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - I do not own the Tin Man series nor any of its characters and I am not making any money from this story.
> 
> Note - This is an "Unexpected" drabble

Ahamo had the way of a natural born charmer. While most of it was subconsciously done, Ahamo was also aware of that fact. It was exactly because he knew how easily a charming word could come that he put the most stock in a person's actions. That was why when Lavender was having problems with her second pregnancy he used his skills as a jack of all trades to build her the gazebo she would come to love, and why he so treasured the figures that his daughters had made him as children.

This would be why he was currently up on a ladder painting a sunrise on Azkadellia's ceiling and hoping he would finish before the rather rickety ladder either gave out on him or DG and Glitch ran out of ways to divert Az. Of course, he had also given orders to both of the Cains to detain Azkadellia from her rooms before he was finished and should DG fail he had the utmost faith that they at least would succeed.

His daughter's constant and unforgiving nightmares broke his heart and had motivated him towards his current, and rather shaky, predicament. He wanted her to be able to look above her in the night and see not the face of the witch, but the beginning of a new day. He had even talked DG into placing a spell on the mural that would cause the sun to give off a faint glow, so that even on the deepest night Az would not wake in darkness.

He knew that it would take time to heal his Azkadellia, but at least he could offer a physical reminder that the Light had won and she was her own.


	3. A Mother's Lullaby

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - I do not own the Tin Man series nor any of its characters and I am not making money from this story.
> 
> Note - So this isn't what I intended on writing at all, but I ended up really liking it. Hopefully, you will too. This is an "Unexpected" drabble.

Azkadellia was having trouble sleeping, again. Voices were crowding in her head, pleading, screaming, and crying. All against the backdrop of the witch's taunting laughter and blurry nightmare images that kept shifting, a disturbing kaleidoscope that left her feeling restless and lost. She couldn't help feeling that if she could just bring one of the painful scenes into focus that maybe she could change it, fight off the witch, help the voices that rang with pain and horror, but the nightmare remained unchanged and refused to release her as she tossed and turned.

Just as she was beginning to think that there would never be anything but this constant barrage of pain and crushing guilt, a gentle hum began somewhere in the background of the dream. Gradually it rose above the rest of the voices, a melody that was infinitely different from the rest. She struggled to hold on as it got clearer.

It was a lullaby. One that you would sing to a small child, something that spoke of the all encompassing compassion in a mother's love. The nightmare faded softly and the voices went silent as its soothing tones continued to gently rise and fall until the only thing remaining was the comforting nothingness of true sleep.

…

Outside the dream, a light breeze ruffled the curtains as the moonlight reached through the windows to illuminate the woman sitting next to the bed. Her face spoke of sorrow and worry while her shoulders drooped with weariness. The hand she reached across the bed shook with quiet tremors as it hovered over the now serene sleeper. A low sigh escaped her as her hand pulled back inches from touching the princess. A hushed whisper emerged before she slowly rose from the chair and left for her own bed.

"Sweet dreams my Dellia."


	4. Blame it on DG

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - I do not own the Tin Man series nor any of its characters, and I am not making money from this story.
> 
> Note - This was the result of a Christmas prompt I received way back when this was first posted on ffnet. The prompt was "mistletoe" and I hope you like it.

It was all DG's fault. Azkadellia was sure of it. She'd thought of little else for the past hour, but of how much DG was to blame for her current situation. Az knew from experience that her sister very seldom thought out the consequences of her actions. There were many examples of this, and as annoyed as Az was she knew this latest one didn't even begin to "take the cake" as DG would put it.

So really Az should have known how DG's latest attempt to bring some of her favorite Otherside traditions to the OZ was going to turn out. Mainly that it would result in her being stuck in a rarely used hallway underneath a piece of what her sister had called mistletoe, because DG had actually remembered she possessed magic and enchanted the blasted thing. She claimed that she'd read it somewhere on the Otherside. Something about "fan fiction" and "Weasly Twins", though in Ozma's name she had no idea what that meant.

She supposed in a rather twisted way it made sense that she would get caught under the only one her mother and Glitch had missed when removing all the others, after several complaints. After all, Azkadellia was usually the one getting in trouble for DG's schemes. Now, if it wasn't for the fact that she had been stuck for over an hour with absolutely nothing to look at but the wall (why couldn't she have been stuck by a window at least?) then maybe she wouldn't have come up with more than fifty ways in which to reek her vengeance on DG. The majority of them didn't even involve using her magic. She would have come up with more already, but she was determined that each one would be as detailed as possible.

She was working on number fifty-one when the sound of footsteps came from behind her.

"Your mother wants you, Princess, and I'm not some damn messenger with nothing better to do than track down you and your sister. Why are you even in this part of the palace? Was someone causing you trouble?" a very familiar and very male voice asked.

"Oh no, nothing wrong" Az said lightly, a rather cunning smile gracing her lips as she realized her freedom was at hand. She kept her back to him as she spoke so he wouldn't guess her plan.

"Then what…mmf" she had a brief moment to think of how nice his lips felt against her own before she felt the spell dissolve and she was off to seek her revenge.

It wasn't until she was already around the corner that he noticed she had taken his gun, and it was a second after that before he realized that was a very Bad Thing.

"Hell".


	5. To kiss or not to kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer - I do not own the Tin Man series nor any of its characters and I am not making money from this story.
> 
> Note - I am working on a follow up to "Blame it on DG", but I am not the best writer to begin with and it is giving me trouble. I offer this substitution instead. This is an "Unexpected" drabble.
> 
> I have no beta at this time, so all mistakes are mine.

**Past:**

 

When she was freed from the witch, Azkadellia had no interest in flirtation or sharing a bed with anyone, ever. Not after having the witch use her body to further her own terrible ends. In fact, for the first weeks she didn't let anyone so much as touch her except for her family.

 

Which is why it came as such a surprise one day to realize that she wanted to be kissed. Not just kissed, but to share breath with another person while their hands mapped her body and her fingers bit into the nape of their neck. Her mother and DG would say it was a good thing, if she told them. That it was a sign of how far she had come, that she was healing. So as DG would say, “what was the problem?”

 

The problem was that she only wanted one man in particular to touch her. A man that until recently couldn't even look her in the eyes. A man that had his family torn apart and his body imprisoned in a metal monstrosity by the witch. He would never want her and she could not blame him for it.

 

So she took all those feelings, that desire, and tried to bury them as deep as she could. She took pleasure in other things instead. Like the simple joy in rediscovering favorite foods and finding new ones. Or being able to curl up in a chair and get lost in a book, knowing she could find her way back whenever she wanted. Her favorite was walking through the gardens in the evening with DG, and reminding herself there was nothing in the dark that could hurt her anymore.

 

**Present Day:**

 

She and DG were walking through the garden again. They had both needed a break from the day's never ending parade of politicians and preparations for the upcoming solstice festival. DG was practically dancing through the dimly lit garden paths as she described her day. Azkadellia was watching her and smiling, while Cain walked a few paces behind in order to avoid DG's flailing arms as she spoke.

 

A particularly dramatic flourish from DG threatened to send Azkadellia straight into the rose bushes. Too amused by her sister's exuberance to realize the danger, she was only saved from a thorny encounter by Cain's hands pulling her out of DG's path. Az found herself laughing instead as DG almost collided with the bushes herself before coming to an abrupt stop, her face inches from an open rose. Seconds later and DG was whirling back in the other direction, gesticulating wildly as she complained of a court politician's reaction to Raw.

 

Expecting Cain to have released her at once, Azkadellia was surprised to feel his hands still resting on her upper arms as she stopped laughing. She drew in a deep breath as his hands slowly glided down the length of her arms all the way to her hands and then finally let go.

 

“Stay here while I get DG before she hurts herself or the damn plants” he instructed before brushing past her and calling after DG.

 

She stared after him in shock as he persuaded DG to calm down so he wouldn't have to “explain to the Queen what happened to her garden or her mad daughter”. She could still feel the path his callused hands had taken down her arms, and she would almost swear he'd given her hands a gentle squeeze before letting go. A quiet smile replaced the shock as Az realized that maybe, just maybe, she could have that kiss after all.

 


End file.
